


i want to fly away

by dryadfiona



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Domestic Fluff, F/F, domestic angst? sort of? it's happy it's just about mental health
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:43:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23249434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dryadfiona/pseuds/dryadfiona
Summary: Rachel's happy, she is, but wanderlust isn't easily solved with a move.
Relationships: Rachel Amber/Chloe Price
Comments: 1
Kudos: 16





	i want to fly away

It starts like this:

Rachel Amber has always felt like something was missing.

When she was a kid, a real kid, she thought it was because she was oh-so-grown up inside and she just needed to grow up on the outside and she'd be fine. But then she got older, and there was still this yawning hunger in her gut. Then she found out about her mother, and she thought _oh, it's her_ , but then she met her, and she was still missing something, and then Sera left again, anyway, so it's hardly like it matters. Then she thought it was love, so she pulled away from Chloe and ran into the arms of someone who made her heart stop, and then she found out that could happen from fear as much as butterflies.

And then Chloe talked about escaping Arcadia Bay and moving to LA, and Rachel started to believe her. She's a Cali girl, right? That must be it.

But here's the thing:

She's still missing something.

* * *

Chloe finds out like this:

Rachel's been less cheerful, lately. Cheerful's never really the right word to describe her, but Chloe doesn't know another word for the way a smile's always on her face, the way she always has plans, the way she always talks about being happy.

Chloe knows that that's an act, sometimes. Not always, but sometimes. No one's happy always. But it's more obvious now, Rachel's smile looking forced even when they're alone together, losing interest in school, sleeping in later and later.

It reminds Chloe about after Sera left again, if she's being honest, and that was a dark time for them both. 

She thinks.

* * *

It changes like this: 

Rachel goes to work one day and comes back to a sparkling clean apartment. Literally sparkling, in places--the windows are cleaner than they've ever been, and all the old streaks on her mirror are gone. 

There are candles lit on their table, and it's the only lighting in the room, soft and warm and inviting, and the tension in Rachel's chest unfurls, a little bit.

"Chloe?"

"I'm in our room, hold on," Chloe calls back, and Rachel sits at their tiny little dining table. It looks nicer in the candlelight, though maybe that's just 'cause she can't really see the nail polish stains unless she squints. 

Chloe walks out of their bedroom, dressed in an actual suit, and Rachel's mouth doesn't drop open, but it's a close thing.

"I thought, uh," Chloe says, not making eye contact like she's _embarrassed,_ like she isn't the most handsome person Rachel's ever _seen_ , "We could do date night."

"You should've given me a chance to dress up," Rachel accuses, but the smile on her face is wide and happy, and Chloe's answering grin is almost shy.

"Too late," Chloe says. "C'mon. Kitchen."

"Did you cook for me?" Rachel says.

"No," Chloe says. "I thought, uh, we could cook. Together, maybe?" 

It's, honestly, not what Rachel pictures when she thinks of date night, but Chloe looks so shy, so unlike she has for _years_ , that Rachel smiles and says yes instead of teasing her about how she doesn't know how to cook.

Rachel chops up vegetables and Chloe starts making some sort of broth, and the two of them keep knocking into each other and laughing, and before they've finished making--whatever it is they're making, Chloe has the recipe but Rachel was distracted because _fuck,_ Chloe in a _suit--_ Rachel's got Chloe pinned against the counter next to the stove, smiling into her neck.

"The-- _fuck,_ Rachel--it's gonna burn."

"We'll order something in," Rachel says, lips brushing Chloe's neck.

"I--normally, I'd be all for that," Chloe says, and Rachel frowns, pulling back.

"Normally? Are you--is this you making me feel good before bad news--"

"No! No," Chloe says, and Rachel calms a bit. "You seemed annoyed, or sad, or--whatever, lately. And I thought maybe, uh, doing more...homey? Stuff? Would make this place feel like home to you."

"It is home," Rachel says, confused.

"Yeah, but..." Chloe takes a breath, moves a little away from Rachel so they aren't quite pinned into each other, turns the burner off. "There's living somewhere and there's a place feeling like home, you know?"

Rachel shakes her head.

"Dude, I'm not good at this," Chloe says, messing with her hair a little. "Um. Okay, remember when David moved in and I stopped wanting to be at my house?"

"Yeah."

"Before he moved in--well, before, uh, my dad died--I loved being home. Not all the time, but being there was...comforting, I guess? It was my home. And then it wasn't, even though I lived there. Does that make sense?"

"Sort of," Rachel says, though she doesn't really get it. "Why would you think this place isn't my home?" 

"You just...seemed sad," Chloe says.

Rachel looks down at the floor, just as clean as the rest of the apartment, and says, "Let's finish cooking and we'll talk?"

Chloe nods, and they finish. 

* * *

Rachel eats her soup slowly. It's really nice, even if it's not even close to as good what they'd normally order, because she made it, and she holds it closer to herself as if it's gonna change how quickly she's eating it.

"So...what's up?" Chloe says.

Rachel takes another spoonful of soup to avoid answering for a second. "Uh. So, do you remember when we first met, and I told you after we found about Sera how I felt like I was _missing_ something?"

"Yeah," Chloe says.

"Well, I...never stopped feeling that way. Not even after I met Sera."

Chloe doesn't say anything, but the little line on her forehead deepens.

"And, uh, it got a little better after we got together, and then it got worse, and then when we moved, and it's just...getting worse. Again." She groans, takes another spoonful. "I just...I don't know what I need to do to _fix_ it, you know? Like, I don't know what I'm missing."

"Uh, Rachel, that sort of sounds...like depression?" Chloe looks supremely uncomfortable, and a little unsure, so Rachel doesn't yell at her then and there. She's not sure why it annoys her so much, but it just--that's not her, okay? "I mean, it's...like, it's not the way I have it, but it's not...I don't think people normally feel that way."

"I've never been normal," Rachel says, a little more acid in her tone than she wants there.

"Yeah, you're great, whatever," Chloe says, annoyed, and this isn't what Rachel wanted from "date night" at all. "But if meds or something'll help, you should talk to someone."

"...maybe," Rachel admits, because honestly, the idea that she won't feel so fucking exhausted and alone sometimes is a selling point all on its own. "I just...I don't know."

"You don't have to, like, figure it out now," Chloe says, a little awkward. "We could just...finish eating and spend a night in."

Rachel smiles at her. "Yeah. That sounds good."

* * *

It ends like this:

It's doesn't. But Rachel ends up going to therapy, and she ends up taking medication, and she ends up feeling happier and happier, and eventually the urge to run away and find something else, something "real" becomes just a normal wanderlust, solved by summer road trips and weekend trips to the beach and occasional evening adventures.

It ends like this:

Chloe by her side for all of it.


End file.
